Hey there! My name is Liana and I am from Armenia. Today I am going to take you somewhere, mmm… somewhere very nice! Currently I am volunteering in Lithuania, in a Regional park of a small, lovely town of Birzai. Full of expectations and desires, I said goodbye to my family and friends and decided to unravel some of the undiscovered corners of the world, somewhere where one can find the most untouched beauties of nature. Birzai…

In fact, my on the road experience started on 3rd of May when I packed my things and decided to dedicate my soul to a little portion of adventure. As you see I am here because for me Lithuania and, particularly, Birzai looked like unexploredand somehow exotic region…So, little by little I started to discover my new home, met a lot of people: my flatmates, my colleagues, some local volunteers, my mentor, other volunteers that live in Birzai.

The very first weeks were time for adaptation, so everything was new discoveries like: Which road to take? Where is the supermarket? How to say “thank you” in Lithuanian? What is that? And this? Where can I find…? And imagine on the second day I got lost just behind my apartment but I didn’t panic because people in Birzai are really friendly and with the help of local friend I found my way J

After that during the next weeks, we started with the project! I fully got introduced to the project with the help of on-arrival training in Trakai organized by Lithuanian National Agency. This trip to Trakai was amazing as I met new people, otherEVSers living in Lithuania, and I learnt more about this country, its history and culture. With some of the volunteers I became good friends, with some soulmates… and we decided to travel together and gain new experiences...

But I will speak about this in the next chapter. Now I want to tell you about my “Before the Sunrise” experience. The ones who have seen this movie can understand what I mean...I was in Vilnius just for one day and I wanted to learn more about this city. And then I met just out of nowhere this local student who showed me his city with his perspective, by a non-standard tour. Within 6 hours walking together in the most unexposed places of the city I discovered the hidden side of Lithuania, its cozy streets, the way of life of people…In the end we said each other good-bye and I don’t know why I felt that it was our first and last meeting!

Thanks to EVS I carry lots of flashbacks of little but indeed very meaningful moments and I still have lots of things to do, places to visit and goals to accomplish. And as Kerouac says “because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars...”Here in Lithuania, in Birzai I am rolling under the most stunning sky, in the warm embrace of lake Sirvena, in search of other place to go…